Crossing The Divide 39 Ss: Steamed Buns

The town could not be considered small, but with only five thousand people, it was not very large either. There was a reliance on each other and very little crime because of it. Most people worked the fields for the local lord but many were also employed in the mines.

The mountains held many mineral resources and a large number of traders came through the town because of this. The young boy's father was unable to get a better job and spent most of his life farming crops and tending to livestock. Any extra money the family made was often wasted on cheap wine at the taverns.

Growing up the young boy was always the strongest, tallest, and fastest of the kids with none of his friends able to compare. His neighbors would often praise him leaving some of his friends jealous but the boy was friendly with everyone and never oppressed the other children.

His mother was a very timid woman in her late twenties. With straight brown hair and hazel eyes, she had a gentle appearance and many felt her father was a fool for marrying her to her husband. Though her life was tough, she never lost her smile and spoiled the boy.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Large families were common in the town but she was only ever able to conceive one child. Because of this, yelling was often heard from the house and occasionally she would be seen hiding bruises on her arm. Her neighbors all agreed and warned the husband if he struck her one more time he would not be let off easy.

Life in the small town was slow and the young boy never thought very much about his future until his father returned home with two men in black and gold robes. His view of the world small, but the young boy knew the men in front of him were very important people.

A middle aged man walked up to the young boy and placed his hand on his chest, pa.s.sing essence qi through his body and confirming he indeed had immortal roots like the father said. Taking a small pouch of gold from his robe, he threw it to the father and picked up the boy preparing to leave.

The little boy screamed calling out for his mother and when she saw the men leaving with her son she ran after him to take him back. However, she would never make it. The young boy watched as his father slapped his mother to the ground and her head slammed against the wooden steps to the house.

The men rushed with the young boy quickly through the streets and up a large mountain well beyond the mines the town relied on. The boy knew of immortals but he never thought he would see one or enter one of their sects.

He cried and pleaded to be allowed home but the only response he ever received was a slap and a cultivation manual. For twelve years he cultivated in the Immortal Tiger sect, and by the time he was 20 he reached the Nascent realm, the youngest in sect history.

As a Nascent cultivator, he was eligible to leave the sect on personal trips and went to visit his home and finally see his mother. He spent more of his life away from her than when he was with her and was afraid that by now she would have forgotten him or even have a new son to care for.

He rushed to the small town and ran to his old house, but it was no longer there. There was only an empty yard with crumbling wood and no sign anyone lived there in years. When he asked his neighbors, few even recognized him and were afraid to answer his questions.

On that day when he was taken to the sect and handed a cultivation manual his mother lay in her own blood and his father escaped the town. His father sold his son and killed his wife for 30 pieces of gold. A laughable sum.

The now young man visited the grave of his mother and cried for the first time since the day he left and made a promise to her. Her name would never be forgotten and he would track down and end the lives of everyone responsible for their separation.

Over the course of the next ten years, the young man tracked down his father who was living on the streets behind a tavern. The 30 coins were spent long ago and he could hardly imagine that he would die that day at the hands of the son he sold. He continued advancing and slowly he tore down the Immortal Tiger Sect leaving no elder alive.

When he finished what he promised, he went back to his mother's grave, apologizing for everything he had done. He built a tower 10 meters high and surrounded it with arrays that were impossible to penetrate. Then he placed a headstone next to the tower that he built in his mother's likeness. A gentle smile that lit up the neighborhood.

He kneeled for three days and three nights before he stood to leave, looking at the headstone one last time. Before turning away, tears flowed down his face when it finally struck him, no matter how long his journey was, he would never see her smiling face nor taste the steamed buns she made him again.